Digging for Data: An Update on Northern Ireland's Digital Archaeological Archives

Abstract

Sitting under the Department for Communities (DfC), the Historic Environment Division (HED) is the government lead on the historic environment, and is responsible for regulating and licensing every archaeological excavation that takes place in Northern Ireland. Every archaeological excavation generates an archive of artefacts, samples and paperwork, in addition to a robust digital archive of reports, registers, drawings, 3D scans and thousands of photographs documenting every square inch of the investigated area. The task of storing this material to ensure its long-term preservation falls to HED’s archival branch, HERoNI. This talk will explore some of the challenges and considerations encountered during the development of HERoNI’s digital archiving strategy, including rationale for selecting DRI as a digital repository; questions of selection, retention, ownership and permanence; struggles conceptualising a file structure that can never change; finding solutions to allow data importing under DfC’s strict data management regulations; collaborating with archaeological agencies and introducing archival standards to non-archive professionals; developing guidance (aiming for completion Jan 2026) and more. The talk will then cover where we are now, exploring workflows, structures and (hopefully) HERoNI’s move towards uploading material to DRI, some 3-4 years after becoming a member. The talk will end with lessons learned and projections/hopes for the future of HERoNI’s digital holdings.